Papermaker UPM has used British business weekly ‘The Economist’ to show how printed newspapers have set benchmarks in sustainability since the first Rio Earth Summit 20 years ago.
Business group president Jyrki Ovaska says the 1992 event challenged business to follow a more sustainable path, and create more value using less raw materials and with less environmental impact.
He says UPM “even surprised themselves” with the results of a case study into production of the internationally renowned news and business publication: “The last 20 years have passed by so fast that it’s easy to forget how much progress has been made since then,” he says.
The study of ‘The Economist’ – which has almost exclusively been produced on UPM paper since 1992 – answers the question of just how much has been achieved in that time.
Compared to 1992, paper used in today’s publication creates 90 per cent less carbon emissions, requires 35 per cent less water in manufacture, and results in 90 per cent less production waste.
The proportion of PEFC-certified wood fibre has risen from nil to 100 per cent, with the EU Ecolabel achieved in 2007.
The figures show only the change in manufacture of the paper used for ‘The Economist’ – based on UPM Ultra from Caledonian for text and UPM Star from Kaukas for covers – and not improvements in production at the publication’s printers. Calculations assume the same weight and grade of paper was used in 1992 and 2012.
“The results of the case study show how much can be achieved when a company embeds sustainable development at the very heart of its business,” says Ovaska. “In our paper business, this is confirmed by UPM achieving the EU Ecolabel for almost its entire product range.”